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NGM - New Guitar Month (2 of 3)

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  • NGM - New Guitar Month (2 of 3)

    “Gypsy” turned out to be a bit of a pleasant surprise. I sold my semi-hollow Ibby AS83 a couple months ago, but not before I pulled the P-Rails out of her and put back the stock ACH humbuckers. Ever since then I’ve been keeping a loose eye open for a good platform for my orphaned P-Rails. I stumbled across a cheap LP copy at GuitarFetish and thought “What the hell... it can’t be THAT bad.” So I ordered an XV-550 which comes stock with the GFS Crunchy Pats humbuckers. They’re supposed to be pretty decent, so I figured I’d use them for some future project.

    It showed up at work on January 6th and WOW! This guitar is BEAUTIFUL!







    But beauty isn’t everything of course. I tuned it up at work and it definitely had some intonation issues out of the box. Frets felt good though. I didn’t spend any real quality time with her until the following weekend when I sat down and started figuring out the intonation problems. Turns out that there wasn’t enough travel in the G string saddle. I tried taking it out and turning it around, but the cheap bridge ended up stripping out on me. Fortunately I still had the original bridge from my Ibanez AS83 around, which was much heavier, had more travel for the saddles, and fit the existing posts and spacing perfectly. Changing the bridge allowed me to get it intonated and now it’s a really great guitar!

    Especially for $239!

    What about the pickups you ask? Well, it turns out that the GFS Crunchy Pats sound really great and I also remembered how much of a PIA it is to work on a semi-hollow. I’m officially now STILL looking for a good platform for my P-Rails!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Originally posted by The Commodores?
    "Chicken Brown Chicken Brown Cow"

  • #2
    Re: NGM - New Guitar Month (2 of 3)

    Sweet. I've wondered about those GFS/Xaviers. They look killer, and at amazing prices. Enjoy.

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    • #3
      Re: NGM - New Guitar Month (2 of 3)

      Thanks!

      I feel like I’ve had pretty good luck with the stuff I’ve purchased from them. Been very pleased with all the pickups I’ve gotten (2 sets of Dream 180s, a set of Dream 90s, a set of Mean 90s, a set of Lil Punchers for Tele, a set of SSS Gold Foils for Strat, a Lil Killer bridge, and now a set of Crunchy Pats), the bodies are good, and I’ve even picked up a couple of their necks which have been good as well. I was admittedly a little worried about an entire guitar, though... but now I’m very glad that I pulled the trigger.

      But everything has needed a little TLC to work well (except the pickups). However, not a LOT of work... just enough that if you’re not a DIYer for your guitars you’d probably be dissatisfied and spend your purchase savings on luthier work instead. For someone like me, though, who doesn’t mind (or even enjoys) doing their own work, buying from them has been a great experience.

      For instance, check out this cheapo bridge that I replaced... how narrow it is in depth and the chintzy wire running across the top to hold the saddle screws down. However, the bridge I replaced it with wasn’t anything fancy either... just more of what I would consider to be “standard, no frills.” The kind of bridge you could easily find online in the $20-$30 range.

      Original bridge:


      Old Ibanez Bridge (I like to turn it so the screws are on the tailpiece side. To me it seems easier to adjust.)


      I already had this bridge hanging around, so obviously it really didn’t cost me anything for the upgrade, but even if I had to buy one like it I would still consider it to be a pretty good deal... especially if that’s the only thing I had to do!


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
      Originally posted by The Commodores?
      "Chicken Brown Chicken Brown Cow"

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      • #4
        Re: NGM - New Guitar Month (2 of 3)

        Excellent.

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